We came to know from the earlier units that product planning, pricing and distribution activities are performed mainly within the company, or between company and its marketing partners. It is mainly through promotion the firm communicates to the present and potential customers in addition to the other related parties.
In fact, Marketing depends heavily on an effective communication flow between the company and the consumer. Manufacturing a product and making it available in the market is only part of the company job. It is equally important, or perhaps more important, to make it known to the consumer that the product is available in the market. In a competitive market, where several firms are striving to win over consumers, it is not enough if the availability of a product is made known to consumers. It is also essential to communicate the distinctive features of the product. The firm should also get feedback on the consumers accept its products and interpret its messages. This multidimensional function can be carried out only through an effective, continuous and two-way flow of communication between the firm and the consumer.
In a free economy consumers are free to purchase what they want and from whomever they want. Hence, the promotion function becomes crucialror example, while going for a major purchase, such as a washing machine, if no form of promotion existed, and if there are no advertisements informing you of the merits of the various brands of washing machines and no salesperson tells you the advantages of a particular brand over competing brands, you would have no means other than your own experience and the experience of people you know to provide you with information concerning the qualities of the various washing machines for sale. As a result of this lack of information, fewer washing machines would be sold. This would greatly increase the price you would have to pay for the washing machine when you finally decide to make a purchase.
PROMOTION MIX
Promotion is the persuasive communication about the product by the offerer to the prospect. methods of communicating with consumers through personal selling advertising, publicity, sales promotion, social contacts, public relations, exhibitions and demonstrations used in promotion. Largely it with non-price competition. The promotion mix consists of the following elements.
Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal (i.e., through some medium, such as radio, print, direct mail or e-mail) presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.
Personal selling: A process of helping and persuading one or more prospects to purchase a product or service or to act on any idea through the use of oral presentation (person-to-person communication).
Sales Promotion: Incentives designed to stimulate the purchase or sale of a product, usually in the short-term.
Publicity: Non-paid, non-personal stimulation of demand for a product, service, or business unit by planting significant news about it or a favourable presentation of it in the media. The overall objective of promotion is influencing the buyer behaviour and his predispositions. of all the elements of promotional mix, advertising occupies prime role. As such first let us now discuss the role of advertising in marketing
ADVERTISING
The basic purpose of advertising is to sell a product, a service or an idea. The advertisement seeks to influence the behaviour of customers. According to Prof E.F.L Breach, "The purpose of advertising is to reproduce percentage costs of production and distribution The term advertising originates from the Latin 'adverto', which means to turn round. Advertising thus denotes the means employed to draw attention to any object or purpose. In the marketing context, advertising has been defined "as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor." Through an advertisement the advertiser intends to spread his ideas about his products/offerings among his customers and prospects. Thus, popularisation of products is the basic aim of the advertising activity.
Advertising is important not only to the business which uses it, but also to consumers and to the economy. Advertising is important to business because it is a means of speaking to many present and prospective customers. Advertising is important to customers because it is a means of finding out about various types of goods and services which are available.
Advertising is important to the economy because it helps in selling goods, and this in turn creates jobs. Advertising is the only means a marketer has to reach thousands or millions of people at the same time. It is by this method the marketer hopes to convince people to take the desired action. In this manner, advertising is mass selling. As mass selling, advertising must lead the customer through the buying process just as the salesperson does no personal selling . Therefore, advertising must attract the customer's attention, develop an interest in the product advertised, create desire for the benefits of the product, and convince the consumers to take same action. This action might be to mail in a coupon, to go to a store to further examine the product, or even to watch a particular television program. In order to be effective the advertisement must provide information about product availability and benefits.
